CIOB Ireland has responded to the public consultation on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Screening Thresholds, advocating for a proportional traffic-light screening system rooted in regulatory resource optimization rather than regulatory rollback. Our submission highlights that current planning delays stem heavily from structural under-resourcing within local authorities. We recommend pairing any threshold revisions with a dedicated Local Authority Resourcing Plan to establish specialized environmental vetting desks. This approach ensures overstretched planning departments can concentrate on complex, high-risk greenfield developments while removing administrative duplication on benign sites.

The response supports establishing clear exclusionary baselines for housing projects (30 to 50 units) and urban footprints (0.5 hectares) to unblock regional SME pipelines and incentivize brownfield rejuvenation. Furthermore, we call for aligning municipal wastewater thresholds with standard EU directives and expanding exemptions to cover deep energy retrofits and verified circular deconstruction plans. By transitioning low-impact compliance checking toward robust building regulations and certified professional competence, Ireland can securely accelerate housing delivery and climate adaptation without compromising its core ecological obligations.